The Region

1. Introduction

The Hudson James Bay Lowlands (HJBL) is a large region (~369,000 km2) endowed with an ecologically rich and diverse mosaic of ecosystems (i.e., wetlands, permafrost, peatlands, rivers, lakes, etc.), and it is home to First Nations communities. The HJBL has low human impact and high ecological integrity, providing ecosystem services of local, national and global importance (e.g., climate stability, traditional wildfoods). However, the region is facing impacts not only from indirect and direct drivers such as climate and land use change, but also social, cultural, economic, and political pressures acting at different spatial and temporal scales. 

Hudson-James Bay lowlands (HJBL) is located in the Hudson Bay Plains ecozone in the northeastern area of Canada. The HJBL covers about 320,000 km2 on the southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay, surrounded by the Canadian Shield. It falls largely in Ontario and Manitoba, with a small extension into Quebec. The Ecological Framework of Canada identifies three main ecoregions within the ecozone: the Coastal Hudson Bay Lowlands, the Hudson Bay Lowland, and the James Bay Lowlands.

The Hudson Bay Plains ecozone is shown by the white bounded polygon. Selected features from these sources: Canada boundaries (open.canada.ca), Ecozones (National Ecological Framework) and base map ESRI; Treaties and territories: Native Land Digital; Protected areas (raw data): World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), downloading data using R interface wdpar.

This ecozone is poorly drained, flat, and dominated by an extensive mosaic of wetlands (ECCC, Junk et al. 2006), lakes (Macleod et al. 2016), and boreal forests and shrubs on the shores of rivers, creeks, and lakes (NALCMS 2020).

CIRCA 2000 land cover map of northern Canada at 30 m resolution from Landsat (Olthof et al. 2014). Grid tiles from Canadian Land Cover, Circa 2000 (Vector) - GeoBase Series, 1996-2005, using Google Earth (top) and displaying one tile (bottom) with all land cover types.

Aerial view of the landscape typical of the Hudson James Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada (Image taken by K. Rühland, PEARL).

The Hudson Bay Plains connects in the north with the vast Hudson complex marine ecoregion (Spalding et al. 2007). Marine and coastal areas in the Hudson Bay are rich environments for species inhabiting the Arctic and for migratory species such as fish, marine mammals, and birds (Stewart and Lockhart 2004). James Bay is a large body of water (68,300 km2) located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario and is politically part of Nunavut. The northeastern coast of James Bay borders Quebec and is in the Taiga Shield ecozone.

2. Indigenous Peoples in the HJBL

Human presence along the shores of James Bay began after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, around 8,000 years ago. Today the HJBL includes the Mushkegowuk Territory home of various First Nation communities: Attawapiskat First Nation, Taykwa Tagamou Nation, Kashechewan First Nation, Fort Albany First Nation, Moose Cree First Nation, Chapleau Cree First Nation and Missanabie Cree First Nation. Nation. It also includes the Weenusk First Nation Nation, Keewaytinook Okimakanak- Fort Severn First Nation in Ontario, the Eeyou Itchee Cree in Quebec, and several other Cree, Metis, Inuit and Dene Nations around Churchill, Manitoba.

The Mushkegowuk Territory is home of various First Nation communities (Source:

The rich ecology and globally significant carbon stocks combined with rapid climate change and other human pressures make conservation of the region’s ecosystems a pressing concern. There are multiple Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) initiatives under the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (for instance the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek initiative and others see Blaise 2022). There are several Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in coastal areas of the region (IBAcanada). There is interest in the establishment of a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA), seeMushkegowuk National Marine Conservation Area), the proposed Project for Finance Permanence (PFP), Omushkego Wahkohtowin, which aims to protect the peatlands, or Breathing Lands of the Omushkego Cree, and several Key Biodiversity Areas.

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3. A dynamic geography

“The lines of raised beaches located far away from the present-day coasts of Hudson Bay and James Bay are one of the most powerful visual reminders that the land has risen, and continues to rise, since the end of the last great ice age about 8000 years ago” Fyon (2020).

At the height of the last ice age, ice sheets spanned much of Canada and parts of the northern United States. The weight of the Laurentide ice sheet, centered over Hudson Bay, depressed the surface of the land. Then, as the ice sheets melted at the end of the ice age, the land started to rebound—a process that continues today (Fyon 2020, NASA). 

Isostatic rebound (i.e., the rise of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last ice age (NSIDC) is causing the southern coast of Hudson Bay coast in Ontario to rise at about 1 to 1.3 meters per hundred years, creating about 3 km of new land every 100 years (Fyon 2020). 

The lines of raised beaches located far away from the present-day coasts of Hudson Bay and James Bay are one of the most powerful visual reminders that the land has risen, and continues to rise, since the end of the last great ice age about 8000 years ago” Fyon (2020).

Permafrost, perennial frozen ground or soil or rock with continuous temperatures below 0°C, are also predominant in the northern part of the region. O’Neill et al. (2019) developed a new permafrost map for Canada showing that two common forms of ground ice in permafrost are present in the region: segregated ice (i.e.,  “..discrete ice lenses or layers that form by migration of unfrozen pore water towards a freezing front..” and Wedge ice (develops when low winter temperatures cause the ground to contract under stress and crack)  are present in the region (O’Neill et al. 2019).  

4. The wetlands of the HJBL

HJBL is a complex and dynamic landscape, a patchwork dominated by shallow coastal bays, spruce-lichen woodlands, and wetlands including “open and forested bogs and peat plateaus; flat fen meadows, and stringed and palsa fens; and swamps, marsh, and open water” (Dredge and Dyke 2020). 

The isostatic rebound has resulted in “a chronosequence of basal peat ages with the oldest peatlands furthest from the coastline” (Packalen et al. 2014). Most wetlands undergo shifts in vegetation type over long timescales; a diverse suite of successional trajectories have been identified for HJBL peatlands. Some sites show classic shifts from marsh to rich fen to poor fen, followed by fen-to-bog transitions (Glaser et al. 2004a; Glaser et al. 2004b, Klinger and Short, 1996) while others show shifts from forested peatlands to open bogs, or marshes to rich fens, which persist for millennia (O’Reilly et al., 2014). 

Each wetland type or successional stage is characterized by distinct processes in terms of carbon uptake and methane (CH4) release (Treat et al. 2021); thus, better tracking the role of vegetation community on long-term rates of carbon accumulation and net carbon balance is an emerging research priority (Mathijssen et al. 2019)” (Da Silva et al. 2022; see also Warner and Asada 2005, Minns et al. 2008). 

The extensive wetlands of the region offer multiple ecosystem services of global and regional significance, including carbon cycling and climate regulation, freshwater supply, water provision, water storage, water retention, water quality, biodiversity maintenance (Keddy et al. 2009), and providing traditional food to indigenous and local communities from multiple species in the region, among others (Tarnocai et al. 2011, FAO-UN (2020), Harris et al. 2021). Peatland restoration and conservation is a critical nature based solution to global and regional climate and biodiversity challenges (Bonn et al. 2016).

5. Peatlands

According to the International Peatland Society: “Peatlands are terrestrial wetland ecosystems in which waterlogged conditions prevent plant material from fully decomposing. Consequently, the production of organic matter exceeds its decomposition, which results in a net accumulation of peat. In cool climates, peatland vegetation is mostly made up of Sphagnum mosses, sedges and shrubs and are the primary builder of peat,….” (International Peatland Society). 

“‘Peatland’ is a general term for land with a naturally accumulated layer of peat near the surface” (UNEP 2022).

“Peat is dead and partially decomposed plant remains that have accumulated in situ under waterlogged conditions. Peatlands are landscapes with a peat deposit that may currently support a vegetation that is peat-forming, may not, or may lack vegetation entirely. The presence of peat or vegetation capable of forming peat is the key characteristic of peatlands” (COP8 Resolution VIII.17). 

Poor drainage and successive accumulation of peat in the long term have resulted in the formation of vast areas of peatlands in the northern landscapes for millennia (Treat et al. 2018, Da Silva et al. 2022). “Peatlands are an important component of the global carbon (C) cycle, as long-term atmospheric C dioxide (CO2) sinks and methane (CH4) sources” (Packalen et al. 2014). Climate, hydrological, geomorphological, and chemical processes drive regular peatland patterns over a regional scale in the HJBL (Macleod et al. (2017); Mahddiyasa et al. (2023), Wang 2022).  

Only 3% of the planet’s terrestrial surface area is made up of peatlands.

Distribution of peatlands worldwide (PETMAP, Xu et al. 2018)

“The Canadian soils store 306 (±147, 90% confidence interval) Pg organic C in the top 1m, 98 Pg C of which are stored in peatlands, confirming that the soil organic C dominates terrestrial carbon stocks in Canada” (Sothe et al. 2022).  

“The Hudson Plain ecozone, with an area of ~349,000 km2, alone stores 38 Pg C in the first meter depth with an average of 109 kg m−2 and 74 Pg C at 0–2 m depth”  (Sothe et al. 2022).

Canada harbors around 25% of the world’s peatlands and the largest peatland carbon stock (Harries et al. 2021, Sothe et al. 2022). It offers global regulating ecosystem services such as global climate stability.

See interactive storymaps of Northern Peatlands in Canada from WCS.

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6. Biota

The vastness of the region offers habitat for many species of plants and animals .

Satellite image: June/July Landsat 8 Mosaic Images 2014, 2017, 2018: NASA (Canadian Geographic).

For instance, multiple species of bird reach their highest breeding densities here (e.g., Blackpoll warbler, Palm warbler), a phenomenon that might be affected by climate change.

Source: BAM Geoportal. Blackpoll Warbler breeding densities estimates. Yellow color represents high densities.

Herd of caribou occupy these landscapes and converge on the wetlands.

Herds of caribou converge on the wetlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which lie around the southern shores of the bay, on July 12, 2022 . THE WATER BROTHERS/WILDLANDS LEAGUE. The Globe and Mail 2022.

Biophysical resources (biota, water, soils, etc) offer multiple local services for Indigenous Peoples and communities living in the HJBL.

Harvest activity reported in the HJBL (Berkes et al. 1995).

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7. Threats, risks, and instabilities

The HJBL region has a low human footprint (Venter et al. 2016, Hirsh-Pearson et al. 2022, Watson et al. 2023, Allan et al. 2017). Some metrics characterize this region as having high ecosystem integrity (Hill et al. 2022), high forest intactness, and ecological connectivity (Grantham et al. 2020). Although numerous waterways of the James Bay watershed have been modified with dams or diversion for major hydroelectric projects, many river basins are characterized by free-flowing rivers (i.e., high connectivity, see Grill et al. 2019), and the wetlands are in a relatively stable condition (Wulder et al. 2018).

Human footprintHirsh-Pearson et al. (2022), main rivers (HydroRIVERS) and lakes (HydroLAKES).

Although some waterways of the HJBL watershed have been modified by human-made structures, most of the river basins are classified as free-flowing rivers (i.e., high connectivity, see Grill et al. 2019), and the wetlands are in a relatively stable condition (Wulder et al. 2018).

Rivers’ Connectivity Status Index for Canada, developed by Confluvio (2020)

Detecting and understanding natural drivers of change in the HJBL must be accompanied by knowledge of how human drivers are causing unexpected changes in different facets of the region’s biodiversity and ecosystem processes and over different temporal and spatial scales. 

Multiple drivers are acting on the HJBL. Global climate warming along with land use change due to varied human activities are major threats to these ecosystems that are expected to increase in prominence and impact in the coming decade. Harris et al. (2021) summarized major threats to peatlands.

(see Abraham et al. (2010) and Ocean North (2021) for a review of status and trends assessment in the region).

Climate change

Canada’s landscapes are experiencing the effects of climate change. These effects include the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to permafrost thaw, shifts in vegetation ecotones and species composition, and increases in tree mortality from drought, wildfire, and insect outbreaks (Drever et al. 2021).

“Approximately 60% of the total area of Canadian peatlands and 51% of the organic carbon mass in all Canadian peatlands are expected to be severely to extremely severely affected by climate change” (Tarnocai 2006).

Peatland sensitivity to climate change (Tarnocai 2006).

“Northern peatlands have cooled the global climate for thousands of years by continuously and persistently removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in deep peat soils, where it has remained for close to 10,000 years. Degradation of this long-term carbon sink releases large quantities of stored carbon to the atmosphere and therefore has the potential to have a major impact on global climate. Peatland C losses from land use change, fires, drainage, and thawing permafrost – are effectively irrecoverable, since carbon in northern peatlands accumulates slowly and recovers on the order of decades and centuries, but not on the timescale of 2030 or 2050 climate targets” (WCS 2021).

Natural climate solutions (NCS) are at the heart of Canada’s contributions to goals for emission reductions (e.g., Smith 2020). Yet, “approximately 60% of the total area of Canadian peatlands and 51% of the organic carbon mass in all Canadian peatlands are expected to be severely to extremely severely affected by climate change” (Tarnocai 2006). 

The increase of temperatures over continental and ocean regions poses a lot of risks globally and for all biophysical components, ecosystem services and challenges for people living in the HJBL and northern regions in Canada (Tarnocai 2006, McLaughlin and Webster 2018, McLaughlin & Packalen 2021, Tam et al. 2013, Tan et al. 2020, Dyke & Sladen 2009, Morison et al. 2023, Pörtner et al. 2023).  Moreover, the potential impacts and how they will play out is one of the key current science questions. Shrubification, longer growing seasons, the likely persistence of a humid climate even with warming in the areas adjacent to HJBL, make this calculation complex. For instance, Gallego-Sala et al. (2018) reported higher rates of peat carbon accumulation during the Holocene Thermal Maximum and the Medieval Warm Period. Chaudhary et a. (2020) reported that “rapid global warming could reduce the carbon sink capacity of the northern peatlands in the coming decades”. And, Qiu et al. (2022) estimated that “Northern peatlands are projected to be climate neutral until the year 2300 under RCP2.6. In contrast, under RCP8.5, CO2 and CH4 emissions by northern peatlands could exacerbate global warming by 0.21C (0.09–0.49C) by 2300”.

Land-cover and land-use change (LCLUC)

Land-cover and Land-use change (LCLUC), along with climate change, is one of the major global drivers of biodiversity loss (Newbold et al. 2015, Powers & Jetz 2019), habitat degradation worldwide, and ecosystem change (Hooper et al. 2012).

Although the entire HJBL has a low human footprint (Venter et al. 2016, Hirsh-Pearson et al. 2022) major development activities modifying the landscape are expected in the region. Mining development is one of them (gc, ring of fire, MLAS, Sonter et al. 2018, see WCS story maps), creating also multiple expectations with Indigenous Peoples and local communities (e.g., mining conflicts with first nations, Mining conflicts, and Canada’s critical minerals strategy). Winter access to the region is a current alternative, using winter trails and/or winter roads facilitated by permafrost. Climate change might affect winter roads viability and longevity in Far North regions (Hori et al. 2016). New roads for mining development are also expected in the region. 

Mining claims and proposed roads in the HJBL. Source Canadian Geographic-Chris Brackley 2023.

“If intact peatlands are drained for agriculture or other human uses, peat oxidation can result in considerable CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases (GHG) for decades or even centuries” (Humpenöder et al. 2020). “Almost half (45%) of the peatland area in the Nordic and Baltic States have been drained and emit almost 80 megatons of CO2 annually, i.e. 25% of the total CO2 emissions of these countries” (Joosten 2015).

“Of particular concern is”irrecoverable C”, or peatland C stocks lost through land conversion that cannot recover by 2050, as required for net-zero global CO2 emissions (Masson-Delmotte et al. 2018; Goldstein et al. 2020).” Avoided conversion of peatland and improved forest management offer the largest climate change mitigation opportunities (Drever et al. 2021). Protecting large and continuous areas in the HJBL will offer multiple global, national and local co-benefits (e.g., biodiversity, carbon storage, Di Marco et al. 2019). Strack et al. (2019) also reported that LCLUC (e.g., petroleum exploration) can increase methane emissions, resulting in a 7-8% increase in GHG emissions currently reported. 

Changing fire regimes

Changes in frequency and intensity of fire regimes are expected to emerge in Canada and the HJBL this century (Hanes et al. 2018,  Kendra et al. 2020, Coops et al. 2018, Kelly et al. 2023, Canadian Wildland Fire Information System). The HJBL will be exposed to these shifts in fire regimes (the fires of 2023 offer anecdotal evidence of the changing risks and consequences for the HJBL). Fires burning peatland will alter carbon fluxes and stocks. Paleo-record supports the view that higher fire frequencies will likely weaken the capacity of some northern peatlands to be net carbon sinks in the future” (Davies et al. 2023). Wilkinson et al. (2023) found that “wildfire processes reduced carbon uptake in pristine peatlands by 35% and further enhanced emissions from degraded peatlands by 10%”. And also, “climate change impacts accelerated carbon losses, where increased burn severity and burn rate reduced the carbon sink by 38% and 65%, respectively, by 2100” (Wilkinson et al. 2023).

See interactive map from Canada Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS)

However, more information is needed to understand how much of the peatland will burn. In some regions to the east, the peatlands burn less often. There is a potential for this region to act as a refuge compared to the peatlands and boreal shields in the west, which are burning more frequently due to drought, climate change, and development. Also, historically Indigenous stewardship of the land included managed fire and controlled burns, which reduced fire severity (e.g., Miller et al. 2010, Nikolakis & Roberts 2020). Wildfire is a major driver of recent permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands (Gibson et al. (2018).

Permafrost thaw

Although permafrost is very limited in extent in the HJBL region; however where it is present it is highly vulnerable to thawing (Spence et al. 2020). Rapid thawing can accelerate carbon release (Turestky et al. 2019, IPCC 2019) and contribute to decreasing the Peat-C accumulation rate of the entire pan-Arctic region (Zhao et al. 2022). McLaughlin and Webster (2013) describe the potential climate change effects on peatland carbon in the HJBL, as follow: “(1) in northern ecoregions accelerated permafrost thawing and wetter peat enhances methane emissions and (2) in southern ecoregions increased evapotranspiration and drier peat accelerates carbon dioxide losses through peat decomposition (and possible fire).” When drained or burned for agriculture (as wetlands often are) they go from being a carbon sink to a carbon source, releasing into the atmosphere centuries of stored carbon (UN Environment programme).  

Permafrost thawing (Turestky et al. 2019)

The effect of these drivers will affect biophysical features in the region, including hydrological feedbacks in northern peatlands (Waddington et al. (2014), changes in wildfire regimes, droughts, the ability of these areas to support plant growth (Conradi et al. 2023), exacerbate the decline of wilderness areas (Watson et al. 2016) and associated biota (Desforges et al. 2022), and ecosystem services (e.g., Tomscha et al. 2019). Mack et al. (2023)  “found that permafrost peatlands declined by 4%, 8.5%, and 2% areal in the sporadic, discontinuous, and continuous permafrost zones, respectively”.

Invasive species

The region is exposed to the arrival of invasive species in the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms (Goldsmith et al. 2021, Kent et al. 2018). An official document from the Ontario government reports there were no documented records of alien or invasive species in the provincial parks and conservation reserves in the HJBL (they noted also that “lack of records does necessarily mean alien and invasive species are absent from a provincial park or conservation reserve”); however, the Ontario Shield Ecozone in the south reports 74 provincial parks and 18 conservation reserves with the presence of alien/invasive plants (Ontario Parks 2021). Six species were identified as a high priority for management  including: European Common Reed (Invasive Phragmites), Garlic Mustard, Giant Hogweed and Wild Parsnip, European Water Chestnut, and Japanese Stiltgrass (Ontario Parks 2021). Additional sources of information are: The invasive alien plants in Canada report (CFIA 2008), aquatic invasive species (DFO), The invasive Species Centre, The Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program, Invasive species in Ontario, Manitoba Aquatic Invasive Species, Quebec Fish,  Quebec plants, and the EDDMapS mapping system.

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8. Partners living and working in the region

A non-exhaustive list of partners working and living in the region and initiatives facing similar challenges from elsewhere that we can learn from.

Initiative/Organization	Aim/scope
GEO BON	GEO BON provides a framework to guide the monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee traditional territory	United through our common interests, traditional values and shared culture they provide multiple services to Indigenous peoples and local communities
Can-Peat University of Waterloo - Waterloo Climate institute	The Can-Peat project will quantify the potential of peatland management in Canada to contribute to climate change mitigation as a nature-based solution.
Wildlife Conservation Society Canada	Our Forests, Peatlands and Climate Change (FPCC) program focuses on connecting field-based science and policy development for forests and peatlands at three different scales.
WWF	Identifying areas of high conservation value in Canada
University of Toronto	Spatial distribution of carbon and predictors of spatial variability (e.g. Packalen et al. 2016).
Far North Biodiversity Project, Ontario	The Far North Biodiversity Project (FNBP) seeks to provide a foundation of information on the terrestrial living resources in support of community-based land use planning.
Permafrost carbon network (Northern hemisphere)	The Permafrost Carbon Network produces new knowledge through research synthesis to quantify the role of permafrost carbon in driving future climate change.
PermafrostNet	Permafrost research
TMOSAIC, Pan-Arctic	Terrestrial Multidisciplinary Distributed Observatories ​for the Study of Arctic Connections
The Arctic Council	The Arctic Council is the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, Arctic Indigenous Peoples and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. CAFF is the Biodiversity Working Group of the Arctic Council.
IPCA Knowledge Basket	A digital space created to honour, celebrate, and catalyze Indigenous-led conservation pathways in Canada, including Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).
The Integrated Assessment Consortium (IAMC)	The IAMC facilitates and fosters the development of integrated assessment models (IAMs)
Biodiversa+	Monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem change (projects funded)
Canada BioGenome Project	“A reference-quality whole genome sequence is the foundation for such genetic analysis and the subsequent development of these management tools”
Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC)	The pilot Cybercartographic Atlas of Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledge seeks to develop a ‘living’ online atlas of great lakes indigenous perspectives and knowledge using the technology and expertise developed at the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) to design cybercartographic atlases.
International peatland Society	A network of peat and peatland experts
UNESCO- Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS)	LINKS promotes local and indigenous knowledge and its inclusion in global climate science and policy processes.
World Climate Research Program	WCRP coordinates research around some of the most pressing scientific questions in relation to the compounded nature of the climate system, to find answers together with all nations, looking at it from a multitude of disciplines.
The National Science Foundation’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)	NEON) is a continental-scale observation facility designed to collect long-term open access ecological data to better understand how U.S. ecosystems are changing.
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network	TERN provides model-ready terrestrial ecosystem data for research
GlobDiversity	GlobDiversity focuses on the development and engineering of Remotely Sensed Essential Biodiversity Variables (RS-enabled EBVs). See reports
INCASE (Ireland)	Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments
Northern Wildlife Knowledge Lab	“Our research explores how the environment, physiology, and behaviour influence the health, abundance, distribution, and coexistence of wildlife species and how this affects the contribution and value of wildlife species to local Indigenous food systems in northern Canada”.
Invasive Species Centre	Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species
Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program	Generate education and awareness of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species, address key pathways contributing to introductions and/or spread, and facilitate monitoring and early detection initiatives for invasive species found within Ontario
EDDMapS	EDDMapS is a web-based mapping system for documenting invasive species and pest distribution.
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)	Independent advisory panel to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada that meets twice a year to assess the status of wildlife species at risk of extinction.
Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments Experiment	An experiment to assess the response of northern peatland ecosystems to increases in temperature and exposures to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Climate Solutions Explorer	What are the avoided climate impacts of mitigation?
Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium	Scenarios Models Tools Projects
Irish Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments (INCASE)	The INCASE project piloted the natural capital approach in Ireland at catchment level to inform  sustainable, data-driven decisions by applying the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA).
Natural Capital Ireland	This Irish charity promotes the adoption of the natural capital approach in public policy and corporate strategy, to promote informed decision-making, to provide evidence-based natural capital support services to those who wish to understand dependencies and impacts on nature and take transformative action
Community Wetlands Forum Ireland	To support the protection, management, and wise use of Ireland’s wetlands for sustainable communities, by providing a network for community wetland groups to share knowledge, ideas, research, and best practice.
Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE, Ireland	Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE IP, a 9-year EU-funded LIFE Integrated Project, works with farmers, local communities, and landowners to add value to the wide range of services provided from our Special Area of Conservation (SAC) network of blanket bogs and associated areas in the west of Ireland.
WaterLANDS	Funded through the EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call 7.1, WaterLANDS will contribute to the restoration of wetland sites across Europe which have been damaged by human activity and is laying the foundations for protection across larger areas.

9. Guidance for action

Ecosystems of the HJBL are heavily influenced by the presence and flows of water that is critical to the vitality of the wildlife and benefits people derive from these ecosystems.

Peatlands

It is vitally important to protect and restore peatland, rather than to drain them for other human activities (Tarigan et al. 2021, Beaury et al. 2024). Conserving the undisturbed peatlands of the region will avoid additional GHG emissions (Strack et al. 2022), thereby contributing to global climate targets (Convention on wetlands 2024). 

Water and biodiversity are both integral to peatland function so therefore we must also consider how these facets interact when conserving peatlands (Farrell et al. 2022).

Wetlands

Reconcile global conservation priorities for wetlands (see Yi et al. 2024) and national, regional and HJBL priorities.

Simulate the spatio-temporal dynamics of wetlands to identify regional differences in HJBL by using:

• Include climate change scenarios.

• Combine models with monitoring and assessments of wetland status Jafarzadeh et al. (2022). 

Lakes

Develop multi-temporal water surface areas based on remote sensing imagery to quantify lake-water dynamics (Shi et al. 2021). This will provide a proxy for lake water provisioning in the HJBL that can be summarized using hierarchical hydrobasins and/or integrated in the spatial prioritization. This will also help provide a baseline for a monitoring program, providing early warnings for lake water levels and quality (Hanly et al. 2024).

Coastal interface

Potential for changing sea level might affect coastal ecosystems along the HJBL. This is a knowledge gap we recommend for review. 

Carbon storage and management

Vital long-term carbon management strategies in the HJBL, include (Harris et al. (2021): land protection and Indigenous stewardship, regulatory tools for impact assessment, financial incentives, implement GHG reporting and climate models, and develop an integrated framework for peatland protection in Canada.

There is an opportunity to model carbon storage pools under multiple scenarios (land cover/land use change and climate change) within the HJBL region, and assess trade-offs with other ecosystem services.

There is a need to optimize monitoring/sampling in the region by identifying priority sites where data is needed to improve model performance and reduce uncertainty. Partnerships with local NGOs, universities/researchers, and indigenous communities are needed to support the implementation of an observing system.

Water

Water is critical to peatland ecosystem functioning. A number of ecosystem services relating to water should be modeled and assessed: 

• Water storage and flows (pluvial and fluvial)

• Water for biodiversity (life systems)

• Water for people (drinking)

• Flood alleviation / mitigation

• Sediment trapping

Biodiversity

Recommendations to understand and project the future state of biodiversity:

• Refine and validate existing species distribution models for the biodiversity of the region.

• Collate all biodiversity information for the region and make it available on Canadensys and Biodiversité Quebec.

• Create a Coupled Model Intercomparison Project among biodiversity models.

• Synthesize predictions that will inform the Monitoring-to-Mitigation Pathway.

• Create a Knowledge-to-Action Hub for co-development of models with stakeholders.

• Identify key information needed to move from knowledge to action in conservation planning (e.g., Buxton et al. 2021) and lessons learned, management practices, policies, etc., from other countries with considerable peatland coverage are worth considering (e.g., Ireland, OPERAs).

Socio-ecological networks approaches can evaluate how different types of governance affect the supply, demand and flow of multiple ecosystem services (Metzger et al. 2020, UNDP 2017).

Environmental DNA (eDNA, i.e., detection of traces of organisms’ DNA in environmental samples) can be used to monitor biodiversity in river networks and within a hierarchical sub-basins and basins structure  (Carraro et al. 2020, 2020b, 2023, Turner et al. 2023), including freshwater fisheries and other ES (Bernos et al. 2023, Heuertz et al. 2023). 

Monitoring the status and trends of genetic diversity using genetic indicators, multiple species relevant for local communities are key to inform policy and report national and global targets (see Hoban et al. (2023). Maps of genetic diversity for the HJBL would provide insight into adaptive potential (Bishop et al. 2023).